Nightmares and Thunderstorms
by Daughter of Necessity
Summary: Bella doesn't sleep. But she does have dreams and she does have nightmares. Hers just aren't at night. J/B.


Warning: _Bella/Jacob._ Don't like, don't read.

Disclaimer: [Insert original and witty disclaimer here]

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Bella doesn't sleep anymore. No, that's not right. Bella _can't _sleep anymore. But she still dreams sometimes. When she's in class, or driving somewhere, or not listening to Alice talk about the newest fashion in Paris, "Well, technically it's not. But it will be in a few months!", her mind just drifts off into nothingness that is so much like sleeping that she can't see the differences.

Bella doesn't, _can't,_ sleep anymore. But she still has nightmares. They just don't happen at night. She's not sure when they started: she can't remember ever having one and it not being dreadfully, crushingly familiar. The nightmares snuck into her thoughts making even her sharp new reality seem distant and inconsequential.

Bella is a vampire. She can grind steel into dust in the palm of her hand. She can move faster than human eyes can follow. She can kill sixteen people in the time it takes a human heart to beat. For all intents and purposes, Bella Swan, 'Cullen' She corrects herself, is invincible. But she's still terrified of having nightmares. She's terrified because they're happening more and more often. She's terrified because the worst part... is waking up.

_They're sitting in the rain, watching the charcoal clouds churn over the grey-green sea. The occasional flash of lightning sears her eyes and she's soaked to the bone, but she doesn't mind, because warm arms are wrapped around her and she can feel his too-fast heartbeat thudding against her back. She's sitting in his lap and his head is resting on her shoulder. They are two pieces of one larger puzzle. They should go, Charlie wants her back by ten and Emily said dinner was at eight but somehow, neither of them can stand the thought of going anywhere. Silence that isn't silence stretches for a while longer._

"_Jake..." she says grudgingly._

"_Yeah, I know. We should go," he sighs._

"_There will be other storms, Jake," she says, trying to convince herself that Emily's cooking is worth it._

"_I know, but this one's _ours_." _

_She nods because somehow it just seems true, right, that no matter how many thunderstorms she sees, all she will ever remember is the churning ocean swathed in grey sky. _

"_But-" she begins._

_He realizes that she's going to be difficult. Bella always was the responsible one._

"_Alright, alright I'm going," he says. Laughing, he helps her up before walking towards the car, his long strides dwarfing her own._

_She pauses and looks out once more at the crashing air and the pounding sea, and this time, she can spot, far in the distance, the clouds parting and clear bright sunlight shining through. _

_She runs to catch up with Jacob, and he gives her his trademark face-splitting, heart-melting smile that screams of days and nights and summers and storms to come. _

Bella Cullen doesn't sleep. But she does have nightmares, and she does have daydreams. And in her case they're the _same thing_. And Bella can kill forty-seven people with the ease of flipping a pancake. But she is still frightened of the skeletons in her closet, the ones that whisper of '_life, air and sunlight.'_

But Bella Cullen has made her choice and so when Edward asks her what's wrong she smiles and says:

"Just thinking." And it's not true, but Edward can't tell, because the only one who could ever read her mind was_ Jacob_. She thinks his name like it's precious, a silent plea for dreams not to be dreams and for this long nightmare to be over.

And after all, she has no reason to lie.

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There you have it. This is my first attempt at Twilight fanfiction. It's really short and a one-shot but I'm pretty proud with it. Feel free to give _constructive_ criticism, key word being constructive, and tell me what you think. And if you came looking for Kakasku, I'm sorry to disappoint but they will be coming soon.

Also, thanks to IrishSongBird, for the better, edited version now up.

~Necessity


End file.
